An important task for project managers in multi-project environments is to effectively choose the right people to the project team. For organizations, it means being able to prioritize and plan human resources among the various projects running in parallel. The purpose of this paper is to describe how a project manager in multi-project environments looks at the allocation of people in their projects. We did our research through literature reviews and interviews with seven project managers.

The research shows that the studied organizations highlight both the expertise and the personal factors in an election. They do not use any specific personality test to identify their staff. The most important thing for them is instead the area of competence, although personality is seen as something important to complete the project. Why then don´t the different personality models have any impact in the selection? The organizations believe that they are already satisfied and think that the choice of simple manageable methods work well. One obstacle may be that they perceive the instep too high in the form of courses, training, purchasing models, etc., and the investment is perceived as being more costly than the estimated profit.

A follow-up question to our main research question was how the project managers perceived the need for IT support system for resource management to help the business improve and streamline their processes of allocation of resources. We have, through our literature studies looked at the importance of using a more advanced IT support system for resource management in large organizations, but in the businesses we studied, they are not used. For example, it may be that IT support can mean large economic costs, large rearrangements and extensive training for staff.

It turned out that those simpler IT support systems as MS Excel in combination with active internal communication is perceived as a sufficiently effective method of resource management particularly for the smaller businesses. Especially in these businesses, it is easier to get background information about potential project members' skills and personal qualities.

Companies and projects often face the challenge of creating something new to increase their competitiveness. In this process of creating something new creativity is an important factor. By using a creative approach and utilizing creative processes new innovations emerges. An industry that has grown in recent years is the computer games industry. Competition is fierce and for the companies to succeed, the product need that extra something to make it stand out among all the produced games.

The project manager's role in the creative process and the ability to be creative within a distance based company is not something highlighted by previous research. This formed the basis of our research question:

How do project managers act to create conditions for creativity among employees in a remotely organized computer game company?

To answer our question, we chose to make a descriptive case study. The project is based in the Nordic countries with employees worldwide. It is altogether a distance based project with no shared workspace. We interviewed the projects two project managers, and supplemented with a qualitative survey amongst the employees. The collected material was analyzed with a methodology inspired by Grounded Theory and previous research results.

Three approaches of how the project managers act to promote creativity are evident in their stories. These approaches are trust, availability and tolerance. They form the basis of our model on how the project managers in this case act to promote employee creativity. Besides the three approaches, two concepts emerged as important tools for creativity in the project: motivation and communication. Our conclusion can be described as follows:

Motivation provides the conditions for creative thinking. By building an organization where project leaders show trust in the ability of employees, and allows tolerance to be a watchword for collaboration, project managers work to improve employee motivation. This will create opportunities for creativity among the employees in this distance based project. Communication is essential for creative work in the project and virtual means of communication a way to increase availability.

Project management skills are needed in a growing number of areas, all with specific requirements regarding technical and social competencies. Still, the majority of project management training is focusing on technical tools and techniques, emphasized in standards suggested by global professional project management associations. Uncertainties and unique social settings require a managerial approach different from the linear, rational and analytical view of the world provided by international standards such as the PMBOK Guide. A new approach to project management education is needed that deals with the complexity of today’s project environments. This paper describes a one year master program in project management at theKarlstadUniversityinSweden. The program is general and focuses on issues regardless of business area or project type, and mix both technical and social skills. The program was initiated in 2002 and more than 200 students have until today been part of the program. In addition to the mandatory courses in the program, several students have, on voluntary basis, passed the IPMA D-level certification. The paper also presents the results from two different types of evaluations showing that the majority of the students have great use of their education in their current employment.

Project management skills are needed in a growing number of areas, all with specific requirements regarding technical and social competencies. Still, the majority of project management training is focusing on technical tools and techniques, emphasized in standards suggested by global professional project management associations. Uncertainties and unique social settings require a managerial approach different from the linear, rational and analytical view of the world provided by international standards such as the PMBOK Guide. A new approach to project management education is needed that deals with the complexity of today’s project environments. This paper describes a one year master program in project management at the KarlstadUniversity in Sweden. The program is general and focuses on issues regardless of business area or project type, and mix both technical and social skills. The program was initiated in 2002 and more than 200 students have until today been part of the program. In addition to the mandatory courses in the program, several students have, on voluntary basis, passed the IPMA D-level certification. The paper also presents the results from two different types of evaluations showing that the majority of the students have great use of their education in their current employment.

Can the Swedish market in standard application packages be charaterized as an industry in transition? This is a question that inspired us to investigate the interplay between vendors and customers of standard application packages apperas today and will appear in the future. Since there are many opinions concerning what standard application packages actually are, we shall begin by defining the concept. Our main theme in the chapter is the events and changes which can be observed in the industry. We shall focus on two interesting trends in the market, namely the development of long-term business relationships and so-called component-based packages

The amount of personal identifiable information that people distribute over different online services has grown rapidly and considerably over the last decades. This has led to increased probabilities for identity theft, profiling and linkability attacks, which can in turn not only result in a threat to people’s personal dignity, finances, and many other aspects of their lives, but also to societies in general. Methods and tools for securing people’s online activities and protecting their privacy on the Internet, so called Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), are being designed and developed. However, these technologies are often seen by ordinary users as complicated and disruptive of their primary tasks.

In this licentiate thesis, I investigate the usability aspects of three main privacy and security enhancing mechanisms. These mechanisms have the goal of helping and encouraging users to protect their privacy on the Internet as they engage in some of the steps necessary to complete a digital transaction. The three mechanisms, which have been investigated within the scope of different research projects, comprise of (1) graphical visualizations of service providers’ privacy policies and user-friendly management and matching of users’ privacy preferences “on the fly”, (2) methods for helping users create appropriate mental models of the data minimization property of anonymous credentials, and (3) employing touch-screen biometrics as a method to authenticate users into mobile devices and verify their identities during a digital transaction.

Results from these investigations suggest that these mechanisms can make digital transactions privacy-friendly and secure while at the same time delivering convenience and usability for ordinary users.

We explore how concepts from the field of network science can be employed to inform Internet users about the way their personal identifiable information (PII) is being used and shared by online services. We argue that presenting users with graphical interfaces that display information about the network structures that are formed by PII exchanges can have an impact on the decisions users take online, such as the services they choose to interact with and the information they decide release.

Frequent contact with online businesses requires Internet users to distribute large amounts of personal information. This spreading of users’ information through different Websites can eventually lead to increased probabilities for identity theft, profiling and linkability attacks, as well as other harmful consequences. Methods and tools for securing people’s online activities and protecting their privacy on the Internet, called Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), are being designed and developed. However, these technologies are often perceived as complicated and obtrusive by users who are not privacy aware or are not computer or technology savvy. This chapter explores the way in which users’ involvement has been considered during the development process of PETs and argues that more democratic approaches of user involvement and data handling practices are needed. It advocates towards an approach in which people are not only seen as consumers of privacy and security technologies, but where they can play a role as the producers of ideas and sources of inspiration for the development of usable PETs that meet their actual privacy needs and concerns.

The PrimeLife Policy Language (PPL) has the objective of helping end users make the data handling practices of data controllers more transparent, allowing them to make well-informed decisions about the release of personal data in exchange for services. In this chapter, we present our work on user interfaces for the PPL policy engine, which aims at displaying the core elements of a data controller's privacy policy in an easily understandable way as well as displaying how far it corresponds with the user's privacy preferences. We also show how privacy preference management can be simplified for end users.

This paper discusses the approach taken within the PrimeLife project for providing user-friendly privacy policy interfaces for the PrimeLife Policy Language (PPL).We present the requirements, design process and usability testing of the “Send Data?” prototype, a browser extension designed and developed to deal with the powerful features provided by PPL. Our interface introduces the novel features of “on the fly” privacy management, predefined levels of privacy settings, and simplified selectionof anonymous credentials. Results from usability tests showed that users understand and appreciate these features and perceive them as being privacy-friendly, and they are therefore suggested as a good approach towards usable privacy policy display and management. Additionally, we present our lessons learnt in the design process of privacy policy interfaces.

We present a prototype of the user interface of a transparency tool that displays an overview of a user's data disclosures to different online service providers and allows them to access data collected about them stored at the services' sides. We explore one particular type of visualization method consisting of tracing lines that connect a user's disclosed personal attributes to the service to which these attributes have been disclosed. We report on the ongoing iterative process of design of such visualization, the challenges encountered and the possibilities for future improvements.

The use of mobile smart devices for storing sensitive informationand accessing online services is increasing. At the same time, methods for authenticating users into their devices and online services that are not only secure, but also privacy and user-friendly are needed. In this paper, we present our initial explorations of the use of lock pattern dynamics as a secure and user-friendly two-factor authentication method. We developed an application for the Android mobile platform to collect data on the way individuals draw lock patterns on a touchscreen. Using a Random Forest machine learning classier this method achieves an average Equal Error Rate (EER) of approximately 10.39%, meaning that lock patterns biometrics can be used for identifying users towards their device, but could also pose a threat to privacy if the users' biometric information is handled outside their control.

Possible attacks on mobile smart devices demand higher security for applications handling payments or sensitive information. The introduction of a tamper-proof area on future generations of mobile devices, called Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), is being implemented. Before devices with embedded TEEs can be deployed to the public, investigations on usability aspects of Trusted User Interfaces (TUI) are needed. This article describes the process we have followed at gathering requirements, prototyping and testing suitable designs for TUIs in combination with a touch-screen biometric system. At the end, we present relevant findings of a pilot study that we have conducted using an Experience Sampling Method (ESM) as part of our ongoing work.

We investigate the end users’ behaviours and attitudes with regards to the control they place in the personal information that they disclose to cloud storage services. Three controlled experiments were carried out to study the influence in users’ decisions to retain or surrender control over their personal information depending on different factors. The results of these experiments reveal, among other things, the users’ willingness to surrender control over personal information that is perceived as non-sensitive in exchange for valuable rewards, and that users would value the possibility of knowing and controlling the parties who are granted access to their data in the cloud. Based on the results from the experiments we provide implications for the design of end-user tools that can promote transparency and accountability in cloud computing environments.

There is a need for a systematic way of working when planning for standard application packages in organizations. We have tried to develop a method for this field - the SIV method (Standard Application Packages in Organizations, in Swedish: Standardsystem I Verksamheter). The SIV method takes the customer's situation as a starting point - a customer view. Furthermore, occasions have been described where a dialogue between the customer and the vendor is necessary, e.g. demonstrations and negotiations. The SIV method gives a survey of the field with emphasis on adaptation of activities and standard application packages to each other.

This report is focusing on "adaptation" of standard application packages. A similar report has been done for "choice" of standard application packages.

There is a need for a systematic way of working when planning for standard application packages in organizations. We have tried to develop a method for this field - the SIV method (Standard Application Packages in Organizations, in Swedish: Standardsystem I Verksamheter). The SIV method takes the customer's situation as a starting point - a customer view. Furthermore, occasions have been described where a dialogue between the customer and the vendor is necessary, e.g. demonstrations and negotiations. The SIV method gives a survey of the field with emphasis on adaptation of activities and standard application packages to each other and choice of standard application packages.

This report is focusing on "choice" of standard application packages. A similar report has been done for "adaptation" of standard application packages.

Most traditional models for system development presuppose that users of the system are known and possible to communicate with. If this is not achievable traditional design methods are less usable in order to analyze and describe the requirements of the users. This paper proposes to complement view design with ideas based on interaction design and semiotics and aims to describe the requirements and wishes of potential and unknown users in information systems supported by image or multimedia databases. In the paper the activity steps of view modelling are brought together with persona techniques from interaction design. The outcome of the proposed method reduces the amount of work considerably and, in addition, reduces the problems associated with involving users in the design process. In addition it forms the basis for the specification of a more informative study to increase the acceptability of databases in public environments

In this paper, we address the recognition of similarities and differences in schema integration while applying the notation in the Karlstad Enterprise Modeling approach. In doing so, we describe and present a set of “if -then” rules. In these rules, we make use of both concept name comparison and comparison of concept neighborhoods (their surroundings). Following the classification of schema matching approaches given by [26], the rules are classified as a composite schema-based matching approach. The rules should first of all be viewed as a step towards a semi-automatic method for the recognition of similarities and differences in the integration of structural Karlstad Enterprise Modeling schemata. By applying the proposed rules, several problems, such as homonyms and synonyms, might be recognized that otherwise could pass unnoticed.

In this paper, we address the classification dependency used to illustrate that one concept is an instance-of another concept. In doing so, we present four important aspects of the classification dependency in the integration of implementation-neutral Karlstad Enterprise Modelling schemata. First and second, the classification dependency can be used not only to recognise and resolve power types but also to recognise and resolve homonyms. Third, in inference rules, the classification dependency can be used to deduce both new concepts and dependencies from already existing ones. Fourth, the classification dependency can be used to counter the occurrence of semantic loss and maintain the vocabulary used in the source schemata. The classification dependency can even be used to semantically enrich the integrated conceptual schema. The four aspects of the classification dependency should also be viewed as important aspects to take into account during the development of a semi-automatic method for the integration of implementation-neutral structural EM schemata. Finally, by applying the classification dependency, several problems, such as power types and homonyms, might be recognised that otherwise could pass unnoticed in the integration process.

View integration is a complex, error-prone and time-consuming task.Therefore there is a need to decompose the integration methods into smallerwell defined phases where different techniques are applied. Most of themethods used today is composed of, or at least is a mixture of, the followingfour phases: pre-integration, comparison of the views, conforming the viewsand merging and restructuring, and most of the methods put focus on phase 2and 3. Despite of this there is a gap between these two phases. To bridge thisgap a framework has been developed. In the framework Inference Rules (IR)are used, together with Enterprise Modeling (EM) as the canonical modelinglanguage, to deduce dependencies that are not conflicting from dependenciesthat are or have been identified as an inter-schema property. Three researchquestions regarding why, how and when IR should be applied in viewintegration are analyzed and discussed and it is argued that the framework maynot only improve view integration as such but also improve the applied conflictand inter-schema resolution techniques.

Schema integration is the task of integrating several local schemata into one global database schema. It is a complex, error-prone and time consuming task. Problems arise in recognizing and resolving problems, such as differences and similarities, between two schemata. Problems also arise in integrating static and dynamic schemata. In this thesis, three research topics are addressed: Maintaining Vocabulary in Schema Integration, Integration of Static Schemata and Integration of Static and Dynamic Schemata, while applying the notation in the Enterprise Modeling approach.

In Maintaining Vocabulary in Schema Integration an analysis of what semantic loss is and why it occurs in schema integration is conducted. Semantic loss is a problem that should be avoided because both concepts and dependencies might be lost. In the thesis, it is argued that concepts and dependencies should be retained as long as possible in the schemata. This should facilitate user involvement since the users’ vocabulary is retained even after resolving similarities and differences between two schemata.

In Integration of Static Schemata two methods are developed. These methods facilitate recognition and resolution of similarities and differences between two conceptual database schemata. By applying the first method, problems between two schemata can be recognized that otherwise could pass unnoticed; by applying the second method, problems can be resolved without causing semantic loss by retaining concepts and dependencies in the schemata.

In Integration of Static and Dynamic Schemata a method on how to integrate static and dynamic schemata is developed. In the method, focus is put on pre- and post-conditions and how to map these to states and state changes in the database. By applying the method, states that are important for the database can be designed and integrated into the conceptual database schema. Also, by applying the method, active database rules can be designed and integrated into the conceptual database schema.

View integration is a complex and time-consuming task because there are several problems that need to be addressed. Two such problems are conflict identification and conflict resolution. Conflicts occur because end users may define concepts on different levels of abstraction and because end users may name concepts differently. Therefore there is a need for methods that can cope with these problems when applying the chosen conceptual modeling language. The aim of this thesis is to develop a method for view integration in conceptual database design in which the dependencies of the Enterprise Modeling approach are applied. For this purpose four research studies have been conducted and each study is presented in one paper. In the first study the problem of semantic loss during view integration is addressed; in the second, the problems of identification and resolution of the homonym conflicts are addressed; in the third, the problem of how to define both databases and software components using Enterprise Modeling as a generic and integrated approach are addressed; and finally, in the fourth study, the problems of applying inference rules for conflict simplification or resolution and for interschema property simplification or resolution are addressed. These research studies together with the five introductory chapters contribute to answering the overall research question: In what way is view integration supported by applying the semantic dependencies of the Enterprise Modeling approach? In this thesis it is argued that using the dependencies of the Enterprise Modeling approach simplifies the view integration process and using the proposed resolution techniques for name conflicts reduces the possibility of semantic loss occurring.

We view the database as a part of a living language and therefore put focus on the dialectical relation between the spoken language and a database represented as a conceptual database schema. We assert that the discrepancy between the spoken language and a database needs to be addressed and minimized. Wealso assert that all concept names need to be retained as long as possible in conceptual database design because otherwise we may end up with a state of concept name compression and semantic loss

In this chapter we describe a pilot survey on applying problem-based learning (PBL) in an undergraduate programming course. During the course the students have applied PBL as a complement to traditional teaching and learning techniques. The PBL problem in this survey combines both knowledge about programming and knowledge about databases. We argue that to handle programming the students have to learn programming according to the deep approach to learning in order to be able to apply their knowledge in new programming situations and contexts. The result from this pilot survey indicates from both a tutor and a student perspective that PBL could be one method to reach a deeper understanding on how to access databases in a programming language.

In this paper we analyze and discuss schema quality in the schema integration process. In doing so, we apply a framework for evaluating the quality of a conceptual schema (e.g. conceptual database schema). In our analysis we combine quality factors and quality metrics with the schema integration process, which is often described as having four distinct phases: pre-integration, comparison of the schemata, conforming the schemata and merging and restructuring. As its main contribution, the paper offers not only new insights on how to improve the quality of the integration process but also a suggestion that the definition of a high quality schema differs between the phases in the schema integration process.

In this paper, we address schema pre-integration in the integration of modeling language independent behavioral schemata. In doing so, we propose and present a set of tasks that should be carried out not only to improve and clarify the meaning of a schema, but also to facilitate the resulting time consuming and error-prone phases in the integration process. Due to the complexity of schema pre-integration, domain experts and repositories (e.g. ontologies) are still important sources of knowledge and should therefore be involved during the whole integration process. As its main contribution, the paper offers new tasks to perform in the schema pre-integration process as well as an adjusted and enriched work of previously presented tasks for schema pre-integration.